Hey Im looking to purchase a GPS navigation system for my car and was wondering if anyone had suggestions or personal experience with any units.

Im looking for ease of use (easy to program especially), updating maps through a pc, text to speech technology (tells me when to turn and maybe even how far), and a bright screen to see in bright sunlight.

Thanks for any help.

3/2/2007 10:29:56 PM

What kind of price range are you looking for?

Cause it matters...a lot.

I have a Mio C310x and I like it a lot. It does most everything I want it to do (and what you want it to do for the most part) and it's pretty full featured for something in its price range. You can get it at outpost for $198. For that kind of money you're not gonna find anything that's nearly as nice IMO. And it appears that the price goes up exponentially for adding features. There was a thread on here a while back about the Mio and some people were saying that the Mio couldn't hold a candle to the Garmin nuvi 660. But at 4 times the price, you have to ask yourself is it worth the insane price hike to you?

3/2/2007 10:52:05 PM

havent really thought about price too much. as cliche as it is...i really want the best bang for the buck.

3/2/2007 11:01:08 PM

im looking to buy a cheap one as well


this is the one that im getting on sunday unless someone can find a better one for the same price range

the maps arent preloaded like the newer ones but its still good

they usually sell for $250-300

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4016515&sourceid=02983233140387139034

[Edited on March 2, 2007 at 11:29 PM. Reason : g]

3/2/2007 11:29:13 PM

^that one looks pretty good. With 128mb though how much map info could you put on it? An average city or state or something?

3/2/2007 11:40:29 PM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16858179002

Buy that + get TomTom Navigation software and maps. You get a great GPS device you can use anywhere plus a PDA. TomTom is by far the best navigatation software you can get and it's way cheaper to do it like this than buy their stand alone device (hint: you don't have to pay for the software ).

3/2/2007 11:41:16 PM

something like this would be nice

3/2/2007 11:47:44 PM

^^^ on the reviews it said 4-5 states would fit

3/2/2007 11:54:39 PM

Quote :

"this is the one that im getting on sunday unless someone can find a better one for the same price range"

That unit doesn't have touch screen capabilities.

It may not sound like a big deal, but trust me when I say you'll hate life after trying to input an address with just 3 buttons.

At $50 I'd say that might be a decent unit for the price. At $200, I'd stick with the Mio.

Edit: After looking at reviews and seeing the screen size, I might have to backtrack on my decent at $50 comment. That thing's a piece at any price. Stay away from that one.

3/3/2007 12:35:34 AM

GARMIN IS MUCH BETTER THAN TOMTOM

Get a Garmin 360...that's what I have and it's incredible.

The 350 isn't quite as nice, but it's on sale for $361 http://slickdeals.net/?nojs=1

My 360 is my mp3 player, GPS, cell phone headset in the car, and has tons of cool features. You can't beat picking a type of food and calling and making reservations from your GPS while it guides you there. SouthPaW12 can back me up on this because he reviewed Garmin units for Engadget.

3/3/2007 12:44:14 AM

i used a mio to get to tn for a business trip.

it worked great....but it was running tom tom software

3/3/2007 12:24:15 PM

Quote :

"It may not sound like a big deal, but trust me when I say you'll hate life after trying to input an address with just 3 buttons."

i never thought about that. now i really like mine with its touch screen

3/3/2007 3:34:01 PM

Sounds like I definitely need a touchscreen. I dont really need an mp3 player though or any multimedia capability. Any ideas on a basic touchscreen gps system with text to speech or at least voice directions?

3/3/2007 4:49:56 PM

avic-z1 ftw

7" touchscreen
10GB HD for music or movies, 30GB for navigation



[Edited on March 3, 2007 at 5:10 PM. Reason : z]

3/3/2007 5:10:15 PM

Well shit. If price and size aren't things to consider then why not buy this:

It seems to be a pretty decent GPS system.

3/3/2007 7:07:50 PM

i'm not a huge fan of it but for the price you all the complaints you could have about the mio are mute. we have an open boxed mio for $169 and our regular pice has dorpped to $199. btw this is at the cary circuit city .

3/3/2007 8:43:37 PM

I think you missed a few words in there. I also think you meant moot instead of mute. Then again it didn't make a hell of a lot of sense to begin with, so maybe you did mean mute.

3/3/2007 9:00:08 PM

I have the Garmin Nuvi 660. Essentially it is the 360 but WIDESCREEN. Makes a huge difference in being able to see more of everything.

A lot more expensive (I think roughly double) but I think it's worth it to not have to take my eyes off the road as much to see where I'm going.

3/4/2007 8:02:44 AM

wow, GPS has changed


I have an old Garmin that works well

but I'd like to get a new one that I can use in the truck or in the boat

3/4/2007 11:18:48 AM

I just ordered a Garmin Nuvi 360, they were down to about $500 on amazon ($544 with overnight shipping) and I had been wanting one for a long time and will be doing an assload of travel the next few weeks so I figured this would be a good time to get it...

3/8/2007 4:00:39 PM

anyone have any feedback or thoughts on this one? It has a touchscreen, voice directions, and its on sale for only $200. the only downside is i have to preload maps onto an sd card, but i dont think that will be a big deal because a 1gb should hold quite a few states.

GARMIN STREETPILOT C320
http://shop2.outpost.com/product/4579507

[Edited on March 8, 2007 at 4:51 PM. Reason : a]

3/8/2007 4:51:02 PM

this thing rules

3/10/2007 7:10:19 PM

^ i told ya man. garmin nuvi's rule the world...i couldn't live without mine now...

3/10/2007 9:51:10 PM

just get a free tomtom with your credit card rewards!!!1

[Edited on March 11, 2007 at 5:22 PM. Reason : 66% of the software is the same in all these products]

3/11/2007 5:20:11 PM

Looks like you can get this MIO for $150

http://bensbargains.net/deal/27917/

5/7/2007 12:23:33 AM

The one a woot looks...uhh..affordable today.

5/7/2007 10:45:40 AM

yeah its pretty ugly. the Mio looks alot nicer.

5/7/2007 10:59:59 AM

srsly, tomtom is the best software i've ever used. i've tried destinator, iNav, and a bunch of standalone ones, and i stuck with tomtom 6.

5/7/2007 12:39:37 PM

You can put the TomTom software on the Mio FWIW. Most people that have used both seem to prefer the Mio software over the TomTom software though, so I never bothered. I just started poking around the internets today and found some map updates for the Mio so I'm looking into updating that and in the meantime I'm finding all sorts of cool shit you can do with the Mio. I never realized how easy it was to get to a Windows screen. One reboot and holding down two buttons is all it takes and then you can start installing other programs.

5/7/2007 12:44:37 PM